Iradj Sahbai

 Iranian composer and conductor, was born in 1945 in Tehran. At the age of ten he entered the Conservatory and began to study with Samin Baghchehban, Hossein Nasehi, Shifte Sedqi and Mostafa-Kamal Purtorab. He ranked first among his colleagues and was awarded the scholarship to study in France. He followed on his studies in Paris and Strasbourg Conservatoires. From master classes of Olivier Messiaen (composition) and J.S. Berau (conducting) he managed to graduate with highest degrees. Afterwards he went to master classes of Pierre Dervaux held in Nice, and Milan Horvat in Salzburg.

    After residence in Strasbourg, he founded the Schiltigheim Orchestra, with which he has performed and recorded music of 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, among them a highly-acclaimed recording of Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat.

    For several years, Sahbai has been headed Schiltigheim-Strasbourg conservatoire, and has taught musicology in Strasbourg and in a branch in Celesta. He has been the guest conductor of numerous orchestras, among them Strasbourg Philharmonic, Sherbrook Youth Orchestra in Canada, Orchestre de l'harmonie de Paris, Percussion Instruments of Strasbourg, Tehran Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic (London). He has contracted with Iran Music Society to conduct Tehran Symphony Orchesta, begun from 2003. Sahbai's own compositiions have received their premieres in Germany, France, England and Iran.

    The piano pieces in this compact disc display a totally different view over Iranian folk songs. The aim was to leave melodic lines as they originally are, while creating a contrapuntal atmosphere (in Fifteen Iranian Folk Songs); in his other works he was inspired by the folk tradition of his native country to compose original pieces (as in Four Piano Pieces).

    Many of Sahbai's pieces have deep roots in folk and regional music of Iran. But again like a tree the root is invisible but it enlives the trunk and branches, so it is the function of root music in Sahbai's oeuvres.

    The derived motives and melodies have undergone modern compositional techniques, and adopting new tones for enriching the melodic line. Together the folk lines and additive lines create tonal-compositional phenomena. In this very phase the inspiration takes the role and makes the intermingling of these phenomena possible. The harmonic atmosphere manifests itself whether in a pre-formed or in an original configuration. The instrumentation represents these phenomena in a kaleidoscopic medium. The result of the process is a form of musical idiom which is going to find its place in contemporary style of composition.

 

 Peyman Yazdaniyan

 Born in 1968 and graduated from Sharif University in Industrial engineering, he began his piano lessons at the age of six with Mr Khofri, then with Maestro Farman Behbud. Afterwards he continued his music studies with Mehran Rowhani, Hushang Kamkar, and Mohammad-Reza Darvishi. He has had brief courses on conducting with Iradj Sahbai and has attended master classes in Graz and Tehran. Yazdaniyan has studied advanced level of piano playing with Prof. GinÅ Gauber at Marseille.

    In 2000 he received first-prize of concoure musicale de France, an international piano competition held by French Ministry of Culture and Art. In the previous year he had received the 2nd prize at the same competition. Up to now, he has composed more than 37 pieces for piano, many of which have been premiered by him in his own piano recitals. After composing for some short films he has turned to compose for features. A selection of his cinematic oeuvres has appeared recently in an album, titled as Themes.

    Of his last achievements is a performance of Bach's D minor piano concerto (orig. for harpsichord) with Tehran Symphony Orchestra conducted by Iradj Sahbai at Vahdat Hall (3002).

 

 Sam Sahbai

 Sam Sahbai is an Iranian Pianist who lives in France. He started his musical practice at the age of 5 by learning the piano (inspired by his musician parents: Iradj Sahbai and Golara Sedqi). He continued his musical studies at the National Conservatory of Strasbourg and got his ``Classical Piano'' diploma there. He worked on the pieces by French and Russian composers such as Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, Scriabine, Sergei Rachmaninov in Francis Phanh-Thanh's classes. At the age of 16, the french pianist Benjamin Moussay introduced him to improvisation and Jazz, later on he continued working with the american Jazz pianist Eric Watson. At the same time he began his Medical studies. He met great musicians like Bojan Zulfikarpasic, Stephan Oliva, Franck Avitabile and Latif Chaarani. Now, with Christine Ott and Thomas Bloch he's learning to play one of the oldest and rarest intruments of electronic music, ondes martenot. Currently, he is playing with musicians such as Landry Biaba (Camerounian composer) and Rana Farhan (Iranian singer).